On may 19th 2023, Adidas confirmed that they would be selling the remainder of existing stock of Yeezy on May 31st 2023.
After the initial termination of the contract between the brand and the rapper Kanye West, Adidas stopped selling the infamous shoes due to pressures from the public regarding West’s antisemitic remarks made on X, formally known as Twitter.
Adidas was one of the last companies to initially drop Kanye. It was only after a Change.org.petition site was set up by the public, urging the brand to cut ties between the rapper, that Adidas decided to terminate the contract. The brand also released a statement officially dropping the rapper, stating that ‘Adidas does not support any kind of antisemitism or hate speech’.
This took a turn in mid-May when the brand released another statement claiming that after almost 4 years of reflection, they have decided to re-release the remainder of the existing stock to sell on their website, as well as donate to charities fighting against anti-semitism. Adidas stated that they came to the final decision of what to do with the stock after sending out surveys to consumers, employees, organisations and communities.
The CEO of Adidas, Bjørn Gulden, released a statement on the Adidas website: “We believe this is the best solution as it respects the created designs and produced shoes, it works for our people, resolves an inventory problem, and will have a positive impact in our communities. There is no place in sport or society for hate of any kind and we remain committed to fighting against it.”
Since the Adidas and Yeezy collaboration began in 2016, Yeezy bought a shocking $1.7 billion in annual revenue by 2020. In addition, the infamous Yeezy 350 V2 trainers were competed against the home name brand Air Jordan and were in heavy rivalry for the title of ‘Sneaker World Supremacy’.
Since Adidas dropped West, they no longer have a fair game against their competitor Nike, the owners of Air Jordan. This raises the question of whether the re-release was simply conducted by the brand to make up for their $440 million loss, putting them back in the running against Nike.
Adidas have around $1.3 billion worth of Yeezy stock which, if all sold, would make up for their loss when losing the rapper by 76%. What’s more, none of the money made from the re-release would be paid in royalties to Kanye West or any of his companies, confirming the question of whether this was a move put in place for financial gain.